I’ve had many different versions of the Fitbit.
[spoiler intro=”Details” title=”if you’re interested”]
I started with the Fitbit Zip.
Then I graduated to the Fitbit One, which is currently selling on Amazon for $274.99. Ouch.
Then I moved on to the Fitbit Flex, which is selling on Amazon for up to $93. I liked the Flex least of the three, but I wanted something that’d go around my wrist and not something that clipped to my clothes that could fall off or get washed.
Then I ended up getting a Samsung Galaxy cellphone, and I switched from Fitbit to the Samsung Gear Fit, which I actually liked because I could wear it like a watch.
Then Samsung, like so many other companies, decided to upgrade the Gear Fit, and I didn’t like the Gear Fit 2, and I also fell out of love with the idea of having to have a Samsung phone in order to use an activity monitor, so I went back to Fitbit and purchased another Fitbit One.
After awhile I lost interest in Samsung phones, because they started making changes that I disliked, so I switched to an LG phone, and then I got a Fitbit Charge 2, which I actually like.
Now…
What I don’t like is whatever’s going on with the Fitbit app.[/spoiler]
Up until about an hour ago I had the app on my cellphone, but I deleted it.
Beginning about four days ago I started receiving a messages that Fitbit had lost access to my status bar notifications. At first I ignored it, because I don’t actually have notifications set up between my phone and the Fitbit. I didn’t buy the device for all that. Plus, I still got a status bar icon when my Fitbit needed charging.
However, when the notice didn’t go away I decided to check it out.
When I tapped the button to see what it was all about, I got the following message:
Um… Excuse me?
Why does the Fitbit app need to read the names of my contacts, read my text messages or touch action buttons from within any of my other notifications in order to show me information that’s being transmitted by my Fitbit device? If I have turned off receiving notifications through the app for any of my other apps, then why would I need to have Fitbit Notification Services activated.
Keep in mind… I don’t have any notifications going from my phone to my Fitbit. I turned all that stuff off. All of it. It makes no sense that I need to enable their notification service, yet I was still getting a message on my pull-down screen that I needed to enable Fitbit’s notification service.
No… That’s not happening. I removed the app and relegated to my Android tablet, where I don’t have any contacts, very few apps and from where I don’t send any text messages.
I’d like to say that I’m surprised, but Fitbit isn’t the only company with an app that is designed in a way to collect data about you and those you know that the company will most likely warehouse on a server somewhere and sell to some other company/companies.
FYI: Clicking the links in this article will take you to Amazon.